The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
for The Friend has been released digitally by Lakeshore Records, featuring music by award-winning composers Jay Wadley (Heart Eyes) and Trevor Gureckis (Servant). The piano-led score accompanied by soaring strings and wind instruments provides a poignant backdrop to the emotionally charged film starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray. The Bleecker Street film directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel is in theaters now.
Based on the bestselling novel, writer and teacher Iris (Watts) finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor (Murray) bequeaths her his beloved 150 lb. Great Dane. The regal yet intractable beast, named Apollo, immediately creates practical problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding with Apollo, she begins to come to terms with her past, and her own creative inner life in this story of healing, love, and friendship.
Wadley notes: “Collaborating with my business partner Trevor Gureckis on the score for The Friend was a truly rewarding experience. Working alongside directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel, who crafted such a poignant narrative, allowed us to create music that deeply resonates with the film’s themes of grief and companionship. We’re honored that our score has been recognized for its emotional depth and subtlety, contributing to the film’s heartfelt storytelling.”
Gureckis adds: “The score reflects the multifaceted nature of New York City. Our compositions range from understated jazz passages to more contemplative, atmospheric arrangements that accompany Apollo’s introduction—the Great Dane whose presence becomes a central visual force in the film.
For Apollo’s musical identity, I incorporated the collar of my late dog as a percussive element, adding textural depth and personal significance. The compositional process presented an intriguing challenge: creating a musical narrative that could authentically connect an animal’s story with the complex dimensions of human trauma.”
Purchase/ Stream: https://lnk.to/the-friend
Track List
- Inevitable Detail
- After the Funeral
- Hagerstown
- Visiting Barbara
- Meeting Apollo
- Watchful Midnight Eye
- Sailboat
- Apollo Dreams
- Tuesday Texts
- Another Perspective
- You Can’t Explain Death To A Dog
- Apollo Waits In The Car
- Dogs Can Have Their Hearts Broken
- Beautiful Aging Apollo
- Jip Dreams
- Part 11
- He Can Stay
- Central Park Waltz
- Against a Limpid Sky
- One More Summer
ABOUT JAY WADLEY
Jay Wadley is a New York-based composer and music producer known for his emotionally rich and stylistically diverse scores. A two-time Charles Ives Award winner from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he was nominated for the 2024 ASCAP Award for Best TV Theme for his work on Franklin (Apple TV+) and has been featured twice in IndieWire’s Best Film Scores of the Year.
His film and television credits include Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Ben Cleary’s Swan Song(Apple), Heidi Ewing’s I Carry You With Me (Sony Pictures Classics), David Mamet’s Henry Johnson, Tell Me Lies (Hulu), Before (Apple TV+) starring Billy Crystal, Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet, The Friend starring Bill Murray and Naomi Watts, the horror-comedy Heart Eyes (Sony/Spyglass), Franklin (Apple TV+) starring Michael Douglas, Minhal Baig’s We Grown Now (Sony, featuring a score performed by the multi–Grammy Award-winning Attacca String Quartet), and as music producer for James Gray’s Armageddon Time and Geremy Jasper’s O’dessa.
Wadley’s scores blend orchestral, electronic, and experimental elements, shaped by his background in punk bands, classical composition, and electronic music. He holds an MM and AD in composition from Yale and began his career orchestrating for Rufus Wainwright, Mark Ronson, and Calexico. His work has been praised for its emotional depth, with IndieWire calling his Indignation score “achingly beautiful”, and the Chicago Tribune hailing his Driveways score as “brilliantly sustaining the film’s emotional undercurrents.”
He is co-founder of Found Objects, an award-winning music and audio production company named one of Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing companies of 2020, which provides original music, sound design, and supervision for film, TV, and advertising.
Wadley is a mentor for the Alliance for Women Film Composers and has been a guest lecturer at Yale, Columbia, Brown, Peabody, and NYU, among others. With each project, he brings a meticulous approach to research, experimentation, and emotional authenticity, continuously pushing the boundaries of storytelling through music.
ABOUT TREVOR GURECKIS
Trevor Gureckis is an award-winning NYC-based composer and producer known for blending classical and electronic elements across film, pop, and concert music. His film/TV work includes M. Night Shyamalan’s “Servant” series and “Old,” Apple TV+’s “The Crowded Room,” and Warner Bros.’ “The Goldfinch,” earning praise for his innovative sound. In 2023, he composed for EA’s “Dead Space” remake. Beyond scoring, Gureckis produced electro-pop band My Great Ghost, collaborated with singer Niia, premiered the ballet “Potential Energies” at BAM Fisher, and released his solo album “Corte.” A Yale School of Music graduate, he’s received BMI Film & TV Awards and co-founded Found Objects, a NYC production company.
ABOUT LAKESHORE RECORDS
Lakeshore Records is a GRAMMY-winning record label, and the soundtrack arm of the Cutting Edge Group. Lakeshore Records is the global independent leader in top line soundtrack album releases, including such popular, critically acclaimed and classic soundtracks as Bridgerton, Stranger Things, Wednesday, Fallout, John Wick, Whiplash, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Drive, Cyberpunk 2077 / Edgerunners, Star Trek: Picard, Bojack Horseman, The Walking Dead, Napoleon Dynamite, Red Dead Redemption 2, the Grammy-winning Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok, the Academy Award nominated Lady Bird and Academy Award winners Moonlight, Little Miss Sunshine, American Factory, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Hurt Locker and many, many more.
For more information, contact: www.lakeshorerecords.com
Read Lakeshore’s blog Soundtracks, Scores And More here: https://soundtracksscoresandmore.com
